Friday, July 22, 2005

Retraction?! Never!!

Joe Morgan has written an article for ESPN called like "Flawed Teams Eye Trade Deadline." I would excerpt it here, except that it is utterly boring and content-less. He essentially goes through each of the teams that has a chance to make the playoffs and says that they either (a) need another bat or (b) could use some pitching. It's amazing.

However, I would like to print one part of it. But first, I'd like to reprint a comment he made in a chat not three weeks ago:

"Ryan (Atl): Hey Joe, I have been saying this for a month now and nobody has listened to me. The A's will win the West. Pitching wins games, and behind Harden, Zito, Blanton, and Haren I beleive that the A's have the best staff in the A.L. The offense has is waking up too with Crosby back. Any thoughts on this???"

"Joe Morgan: Well, nobody is listening to you, Ryan, and I'm not going to listen to you either. I don't even think the A's are going to make the playoffs. They started off 7-20, and they've been playing much better, I'll give them that, but they are not nearly as good as the California Angels are, and their offense is not nearly as good as you think it is. I will agree with you that their good young pitching staff is impressive. Their test will come in the next six games when they play the White Sox."

Okay. Now, a comment from today's column:

TEAMS TO WATCHAL: Oakland AthleticsAfter a slow start, due in part to injuries, the A's are now one of the hottest teams in baseball and are within 2½ games of the AL wild-card leaders (Minnesota and New York). In the AL West, the A's trail the first-place Angels by 6½ games.

Oakland is led by veterans like Eric Chavez, who has plenty of postseason experience. But I don't necessarily expect the A's to win the AL wild card, because their rotation features young pitchers like Rich Harden, Danny Haren and Joe Blanton (none is older than 24). Young pitchers tend to run out of gas after they've logged about 150 innings. I believe this is why Marlins starter Dontrelle Willis ran out of gas last year.

The typical major-league starter logs 200-plus innings in a season, but younger pitchers are used to lesser workloads in college or the minor leagues. So young guys need to build up arm strength.

I expect the A's starters to pitch well for another month, at least, and Oakland has a chance to make a run in that time.

What the hell is this? Why should we watch them if they aren't going to win? But wait -- they might win. But their ptchers are...young? So they will pitch well for another month, and then stink? So they might not win the WC? What are you saying?

I think you are saying that the A's have a chance to win the WC, and if that is true, you should lambaste yourself for saying the exact opposite like 16 days ago.